Turtle Pen Help

[GooeyCat]

So I have recently built and outdoor pen for my 3-toed box turtles. It's not the prettiest thing in the world but it gets the job done. I used a piece of wood on the bottom since I couldn't dig out a space for the box. The bottom has no draining capabilities so water is an issue atm. I recently read about using hardware cloth on the bottom to both prevent them from escaping and to allow water to drain. Wish I had found that sooner :/ The substrate is organic soil mixed with peat/sphagnum moss.

I was wondering how I can improve the pen:
-what plants can I use? I was thinking about Hostas and spider plant
-How can I make water drain out? Should I replace the bottom board with hardware cloth?
-how wet should the substrate be? Should the dirt be like stuck together but not muddy?
-Anything else you think I should add/change

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Put lots of plants, it's too dry now, they like to be more moist. Put more hides, rocks, flower pots, branches. Dig thru the substrate and cut the plastic in a few places, it will leak then...

 

[G-stars]

Spider plants are good. I would be careful with your water source as she could potentially flip herself in it. I let my top layer of substrate get a little bit dry. I check it by putting my finger in to see if it's still moist under it about half an inch.


— Gus

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm curious why you lined the pen with plastic? In my opinion, it would have been better to dig out or scrape off the top layer of grass, add your substrate and plant right in the native soil.

Rose of Sharon, any in the viola family, pansies, strawberries and ornamental strawberries. Any of the squash plants. The list is really endless.

 

[Yvonne G]

...oh, and Welcome to the Forum!!

 

[justino4444]

Definetly either dig down and bury the water down into the substrate a bit or get a ceramic pot thing- can't find the word for that "thing"


~ Justin

 

[GooeyCat]

Thanks for the replies! As for the reason that there is plastic in it, it is to waterproof the inside of the box. I can't dig out the lawn since I'm a recent college graduate and don't have my own place yet. That is def a good idea to scrape off the top layer of grass though! If it was up to me it would be a lot bigger with no bottom so its just on the ground. The ground here isn't very level in our back yard so we decided to go ahead and put a bottom on it.

I'll put the water dish down into the substrate some. Any ideas to keep the dirt out of it?

 

[leigti]

You can keep some of the dirt out of it Buy a ringing it with rocks so that some of the dirt falls off their feet before they get into the water. But you'll still have to change it every day anyway here is what I did, it is a plastic paint tray buried in the dirt with rocks in it and slate surrounding it. Just an idea.

 

[GooeyCat]

Ok that sounds like a good idea

 

[Yvonne G]

But no matter what you do or what steps you take to keep the water clean, it never stays clean. It will be full of dirt within minutes!

 

[leigti]

But no matter what you do or what steps you take to keep the water clean, it never stays clean. It will be full of dirt within minutes!

Sometimes I wonder if they like it that way

 

[johnsonnboswell]

That plastic lining offers footholds for escape. You'd be better off not waterproofing the wood and just replacing it regularly.

I use Cinderblocks for a wall. Without mortar they can be moved or removed easily.

I've never had a landlord deny permission to put in a flower bed. And that's the ideal turtle habitat if you don't use mulch.

 

[Earth Mama]

Definetly either dig down and bury the water down into the substrate a bit or get a ceramic pot thing- can't find the word for that "thing"


~ Justin

Saucer

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Gooeycat, I use pressure treated "dog eared fence post pickets" to build my wooden structures. They last about 10 years and more, are very inexpensive and come in 6' lengths so it makes it easy to built structures that are 6' x 6', 6' x 12', etc. Use four pressure treated 2' x 2' for the corners.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Do you realize " pressure treated " means they used pressure to push the poison deep in to the wood . And for years the poison will leach in to the soil . And the poison will kill anything that try's to get in the wood .


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[ZEROPILOT]

No more arsenic, though. It's supposedly safe to use . (Safer to use?) I have three pens and an aviary made from it and a large iguana cage that got blown away in a hurricane. I've never used it to house gnawing animals.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Let's say your right that the animals you keep don't eat the wood . Can we discuss crickets that do try to eat the wood ..... Do your pets eat crickets ? ??? Just something to think about ...


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[Turtlepete]

Do you realize " pressure treated " means they used pressure to push the poison deep in to the wood . And for years the poison will leach in to the soil . And the poison will kill anything that try's to get in the wood .


Sent from my iPhone using TortForum

Um…Not poison. It's typically a preservant and fire retardant, as far as I understand.
Not as bad as the poisons the government allows to be sprayed on our food, I can assure you 100% of that.
I've kept dozens of kinds of animals with pressure treated wood…..None have died or had any negative effect what-so-ever. My red foots soak in mud from water that ran off pressure treated wood. No issues what-so-ever….

 

[GooeyCat]

Sometimes I wonder if they like it that way

My turtles are very destructive so it wouldn't surprise me lol. I think they like to mess things up so they can watch me clean it :3

 

[GooeyCat]

That plastic lining offers footholds for escape. You'd be better off not waterproofing the wood and just replacing it regularly.

I use Cinderblocks for a wall. Without mortar they can be moved or removed easily.

I've never had a landlord deny permission to put in a flower bed. And that's the ideal turtle habitat if you don't use mulch.

Yeah, the turtles can escape when they want so I'm thinking about getting hardware cloth and making a hinged door on top which would also prevent things from getting in although I'm pretty sure no predators live around me. I check them constantly when I put them out there so they wont get too far if they escape :3